IP Convergence and the Unified Communications Vision

eWEEK Labs Senior Technical Analyst Andrew Garcia spent last week at the VON conference and based on some of the products he saw came away with some encouraging views on the shape of unified communications and where it is headed for enterprise users. Garcia says that UC is a frustrating and confusing term, because not only do vendors each have their own definitions, but so do customers. Presence is a core component, most agree, as are unified e-mail, voice, instant messaging and fax. But after that it gets fuzzy: What about VOIP? video conferencing? mobile and wireless? enterprise applications? These are all part of UC, but the real answers depend on what customers are trying to accomplish with unified communications.

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Andrew cut his teeth as a systems administrator at the University of California, learning the ins and outs of server migration, Windows desktop management, Unix and Novell administration. After a tour of duty as a team leader for PC Magazine's Labs, Andrew turned to system integration - providing network, server, and desktop consulting services for small businesses throughout the Bay Area. With eWEEK Labs since 2003, Andrew concentrates on wireless networking technologies while moonlighting with Microsoft Windows, mobile devices and management, and unified communications. He produces product reviews, technology analysis and opinion pieces for eWEEK.com, eWEEK magazine, and the Labs' Release Notes blog. Follow Andrew on Twitter at andrewrgarcia, or reach him by email at agarcia@eweek.com.